(6 Apr 2006) SHOTLIST
5 April 2006
1. Wide of the exterior of the Saint Francis Basilica in Assisi
2. Mid of Saint Francis Basilica
3. Wide of interior of the upper basilica of Saint Francis with tourists
4. Wide of vaults
5. Close up of rib vaults of St. Matthew and star-studded rib
6. Tourist looking at the restored vaults
7. Tilt up frescoes on the arcade
8. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Caterina Bon Valsassina, Director of the Italian Central Institute for Restoration:
"It is clear that if we had unlimited funds for research and unlimited time we could have recovered everything but it would have taken ten years and meanwhile you had a void there. So we had to make a budget decision, a balance between costs and benefits".
FILE - 26 September 1997
9. Pan up facade a few minutes after the earthquake
10. Tilt down from hole in the vault to firefighters working
11. Various of firefighters working
12. Workers lifting a restored piece of the rib vault
13. Workers replacing restored piece
5 April 2006
14. Italian Minister of Culture Rocco Buttiglione climbing up the stairs of the Upper St. Francis Basilica followed by journalists
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Rocco Buttiglione, Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage:
"You must not be violent in trying to reconstruct something that was lost you must be faithful to the authenticity of the work of art only in this way it retains that ''aura'', that kind of spiritual fullness."
16. Mid of Buttiglione at unveiling ceremony
17. Various of vaults
18. Mid of people inside the basilica
19. Various of vaults
20. Pan down from vault to people applauding
STORYLINE
After years of painstaking restoration, Assisi''s medieval St. Francis basilica has been returned to much of its former beauty.
The Italian minister for Cultural Heritage, Rocco Buttiglione on Wednesday unveiled the final stage of the restoration which was also the most difficult one.
Two frescoes of the XIII century vault of Cimabue, the rib vault depicting St. Matthew and the star-studded rib, have been successfully replaced on the ceiling of the basilica.
St. Francis of Assisi is one of Italy''s most revered saints and the basilica that bears his name one of the country''s most visited churches.
In 1997 two earthquakes struck the Italian city of Assisi.
The second quake brought part of the 13th century basilica crashing to the floor, where it broke into thousands of pieces.
Only Cimabue''s rib vaults were fragmented in 120.000 small pieces that had been patiently recovered.
The clean up operation was enormous.
Workers sifted through the precious fragments looking for pieces that could be salvaged.
Those pieces were marked and catalogued to replaced later in what would become a huge restoration effort.
World famous frescoes by famous painters including Giotto and Cimabue were reduced to pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
With the help of the latest computer software, the artisans have been able to solve many of the puzzles of the broken frescoes.
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